Fashion Plate beats out Streaming in Las Virgenes

Fashion Plate beats out Streaming at the 2014 Las Virgenes Stakes: Fashion Plate was able to beat out an early favorite, Streaming, for a win at the 2014 Las Virgenes Stakes at the Santa Anita Race Park. This was a Grade 1 race and is a part of the road to the Kentucky Oaks. The victory held a $300,000 purse and it proved to be a wire to wire win for Fashion Plate.

Fashion Plate was rated at 9-2 odds going into the 2014 Las Virgenes Stakes. Fashion Plate was ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens. She posted a time of 1:37.22 for the 1 mile length race, winning by ½ a length, with Streaming coming in second and Arethusa coming in third. The 2014 Las Virgenes victory improved Fashion Plates record to 4-2-0-1.

In the race, Fashion Plate got a quick start out of the gate and fought pretty hard against Streaming throughout the race. Fashion Plate is trained by Simon Callaghan who said, “When they came to her, she really dug in and tried real hard…She’s a special filly. It means a lot to win this race. Gary put up a great ride. She went nice fractions, she went pretty quick and I think that was a testament to her courage and ability that she was able to do that and sustain the run.”

This was the second win in a row for Fashion Plate, winning earlier in December 2013 at Santa Anita. Stevens said of Fashion Plate, “She’s a very cooperative filly. You never know first time going long. She broke very relaxed and I didn’t want to get her rolling. She was content to stay inside of Rafael around the first turn and at three-quarter pole I knew it wasn’t good for either one of us, even though she was so relaxed, so I let her out a notch and she did what I wanted her to do. This was pretty much the hardest I’ve had to work this meet.”

Callaghan predicted that the next race for Fashion Plate will probably be the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. We will wait and see how hard work pays off for Fashion Plate in May at the Kentucky Oaks then.

2014 Las Virgenes Results and Payouts
2 Fashion Plate $11.40 to Win,  $4.40 to Place, $3.80 to Show
8 Streaming $2.80 to Place, $2.40 to Show
3 Arethusa $4.60 to Show
Also ran: 7 – Taste Like Candy , 4 – Artemis , 1 – Saintly Joan , 6 – Sushi Empire
Scratched horses: Earthflight (GB) (Trainer)

Las Virgenes Stakes 2014 Replay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpKoukTWH8s